Poznańskie Studia Polonistyczne. Seria Literacka, 2012, nr 19 (39)
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Item Piotr Chmielowski o Wiktorze Gomulickim – na podstawie kolejnych wydań "Zarysu literatury polskiej" i innych wypowiedzi krytyka(2012) Zajkowska, JoannaThe article presents a catalogue of commentaries and critical remarks made by Piotr Chmielowski on the poetry of Wiktor Gomulicki (penname Fantazy). The article attempts to reconstruct the set of criteria and the system for evaluation applied by the critic in dealing with the successive collections of poems written by Fantazy. These criteria are indicative of rather one-sided and petrified perception of Gomulicki’s poems by the critic maintained and expressed in the successive editions of his "Zarys literatury polskiej z ostatnich lat szesnastu". Still, the commentaries given by Chmielowski contain some interesting precognitions and intuitions that proved to be substantial in reevaluation of the opinions on the poetry of the nineteenth century in general made by present-day literary critics. Additionally, there seems to be a particular dialogue between the critic and the poet going on for years that could have influenced the alternations in the workshop and the thematic scope in the poems of the latter.Item "Pieśni nabożne…" z krakowskiej oficyny Antoniego Wosińskiego (1627)(2012) Wydra, WiesławThe article analyses the unique copy of the old Polish catholic hymn book "Pieśni nabożne na święta uroczyste według porządku Kościoła ś. katolickiego na cały rok z wielką pilnością zebrane" [Songs of piety and devotion...] published in Cracow in 1627 and found at the library at Escorial in Spain. The book, apparently the first known printed Polish catholic extensive hymn book, contained over 140 songs, in Polish and Latin, including works written by Jan Kochanowski and Mikołaj Rej. The article also describes later editions of the hymn book. This is a particularly important book in the history of Polish culture because it was repeatedly republished in different printing offices, not only Catholic, under the same or slightly changed title as late as until the nineteenth century. Numerous editions of the hymn book constitute a valuable source for the study of Polish Catholic hymns as they make it possible to follow and trace the chronology of works, their textual variations and the popularity of particular songs or hymns within a particular time frame, as well as their range of influence and regional occurrence.Item Znikający punkt zwrotny. Piotra Chmielowskiego kłopoty z periodyzacją „najnowszej literatury polskiej”(2012) Wedemann, MarekMakeshift solutions are, more often than not, the ones that tend to last longer than expected. "Zarys literatury polskiej z ostatnich lat szesnastu" [An outline of the literature of the last sixteen years] written by Piotr Chmielowski was designed in the author’s intention as a sketch of “rather journalistic than historical features”. The above is clearly indicated by the forewords written by the author to its successive four editions published between 1881 and 1898. Still, despite its lack of pretentions, the book acquired with time the status of a fully-fledged instructive approach to Polish literature of the Positivist period. A closer look at the text with regard to the proposed periodization reveals, however, a number of flaws and aporias committed by Chmielowski, particularly in establishing boundary dates of the proposed literary period. The present article attempts to prove that the source for the inaccuracies and inconsistencies of the solutions proposed in "Zarys" is not so much in their makeshift or the pro tem nature, but rather in the aggressively promoted ideology, represented by Chmielowski, that completely disregarded the nature of literary phenomena.Item „Czasy ginącego piękna”. Pozytywistycznej historii literatury kłopoty z barokiem(2012) Szewczyk-Haake, KatarzynaThe article deals with the ways in which Baroque works and their authors were presented in the positivist history of literature. The source material for the analysis was provided by the texts written by Piotr Chmielowski, Stanisław Tarnowski, Adam Bełcikowski, Henryk Sienkiewicz and Felicjan Faleński. The article discusses the sources for a rather distinct dislike of the literary output of Baroque authors in general, which was in line with the then well-established opinions deeply rooted in European research, but also derived from a valuation based on national and patriotic criteria. A certain differentiation in research methods is also indicated, mostly of those stemming from the spirit of Taine, but, occasionally, approaching Baroque works with the help of a stylistic analysis and thus making it possible to show more appreciation to the literature created in the period that, as understood from the positivist perspective, was believed to be of inferior quality.Item Czytając "Elegie" Rainera Marii Rilkego(2012) Surowska, Barbara L.The article discusses the book "Rycerz i śmierć" written by Katarzyna Kuczyńska-Koschany. The book includes essays on Reiner Maria Rilke’s "Duino Elegies" published earlier that have been revised and updated. The poem cycle called the "Duino Elegies" is composed of ten separate poems written in 1912, 1913, 1915 and 1922, i.e. at the peak period of the poet’s imagination and mental activity. The reviewer provides a detailed analysis of the first four chapters of the book in which three elegies written before the outbreak of the first war, and the fourth that originated when the war was raging on, are presented. The reviewer appreciates the author’s careful preparation for the book and the ambitious agenda of the author to describe in a synthetic form, for the first time in Poland, the whole cycle of Rilke’s elegies with their Polish translations along with their quality evaluation and comparison taken into consideration, as well as some presentations of German interpretations from prominent specialists in the life and the literary output of Rilke. However, the reviewer is not ready to buy all of the author’s claims and points at numerous, perhaps too numerous, errors, distortions in facts and erroneous reading of the original texts written in German, which, to a high degree, lowers the perceived quality of the discussed book.Item Piotra Chmielowskiego argumenty przeciw poetom i poezji (w "Zarysie literatury z ostatnich lat szesnastu")(2012) Ratajczak, WiesławThe article discusses the arguments against poetry that were used in Piotr Chmielowski’s "Zarys literatury polskiej z ostatnich lat szesnastu" [An outline of the literature of the last sixteen years] by its author. The critic’s intention was to diminish the significance of poetry and, in effect, to push poetry to the margin of literary life. To achieve that, Chmielowski presented a number of examples where modern poetry was not capable of grappling with the problems and challenges of the modern world. Chmielowski also instilled a vision in which writing poems itself appeared to be atavistic and as a relic of an earlier stage of evolution. Since lyric poetry made a particular core of literature, to challenge its position in literature in the name of progress made it possible to question all traditional “authorities”. The author of "Zarys" indicated examples testifying to the vitality of the novel and future possibilities in the development of this particular genre, whereas his formulated accusations against poetry and poets included their general bad condition (physical, mental and psychical). In addition, Chmielowski accused poetry of insincerity and untruthfulness. With regard to the poetics of the discussed poems, Chmielowski just limited himself to briefly formulated allegations and objections of their rhetoricality and epigonic character.Item Czasami jestem (czytając wiersz "McDonald’s")(2012) Próchniak, PawełThe present sketch proposes an interpretation of one of the most important poems of the early poetry written by Marcin Świetlicki. At the same time, the reading of the poem is paired with a simultaneous analytical interpretation providing the standard analytical scheme usually applied to any poetical work (this scheme is based on a sequence of recognitions that refer to: 1. writing, 2. euphony, 3. semantics of spaces concentrated with meaning, 4. the structure of the presented world. A presentation of the four fundamental steps in the analysis is accompanied with a reflection on the paradox of interpretation, the corresponding model of which is in the poem the outlined mirror image of identity between the “opaque” depth and “overt” surface.Item "Wyrok" Rafała Wojaczka jako kres możliwości podmiotu(2012) Pertek, GrzegorzThe present article attempts to interpret the poem "Wyrok" [The Verdict] written by Rafał Wojaczek. The author tries to reveal the rules of the game in the play with psychoanalysis that are set in motion in the poem by the introduction of the Freudian signature to the text. Citing the Oedipus complex as one of the “representative” mechanisms for the development of the phenomenon of unawareness, he proceeds to prove that the theory of psychoanalysis as the interpretative context can function on the principle of the paradox, i.e. the stronger the denial of it within the subject, the more important it becomes for the understanding of the work. In this way, Wojaczek, by making the poem heretically sealed, opens it up to interpretation and, eventually, implies that its sense goes beyond any explanation (negation of psychoanalysis as an interpretative method). This last statement makes the basis for a formulation of further assumptions on the psychical structure of the subject (conscious unawareness and unconscious awareness), as well as the relations between the author, the subject and the lyrical protagonist where the author, after exceeding the limits of the poem, splits himself into two instances: textual representation (that of the father) and the lyrical “I” that is the irrevocable verdict condemning the poet to making them fit into language and grammar. An attempt, then, at salvation and a coupling of the body (blood) with the lingering word turns out, however, to be deadly, a carrying out of the verdict.Item Bałkany a sprawa polska. "Mitrovica" Radosława Kobierskiego(2012) Pawelec, DariuszThe aim of the interpretation of the poem "Mitrovica" written by Radosław Kobierski is a quest for the ”peculiarity” and “singularity” of the literature” as it is viewed by Derek Attridge. The way the eponymous word sounds leads to a formulation of the question on what “semantic relations” are established between the title word and the remaining text. The journalistic character of the poem relates to the geography of the Balkan War of the 1990s. But the singularity and uniqueness of the poem "Mitrovica" stems rather from the tension that arises from its journalistic- style narration, reporting citation and a specific place name and what is metaphorical and symbolic. The Kobierski’s poem, creating its own, unique “singularity” comes also to grips with the media discourse related to the post-Yugoslav crisis. The interpretation shows how important is the application of the rule of myth-making poetical reversal in stripping the poetical discourse of stereotypes and cliches, but not of the relevance to reality.Item Dziewiętnastowieczne ratowanie ciągłości. Poezja Adama Asnyka w refleksji Piotra Chmielowskiego(2012) Osiński, Dawid MariaThe article attempts to reveal a reconstruction of Piotr Chmielowski’s critical thought regarding the poetical works written by Adam Asnyk (pen-name E...ly). The starting point for the discussion is a set of variations for different editions of "Zarys literatury polskiej" as well as other works of the critic elucidating the specificity, importance and the character of the poetry of E…ly. The article attempts to show why it was just the figure of the poet that was necessary and constituted a model figure for revealing the attempts of saving continuance of not only Polish poetry but also national culture and heritage. In his critical reflection, Chmielowski tries to find continuity between the Romantic paradigm and the post-January insurgency paradigm that was to define the obligations and the status of poetry, as well as to identify, uphold and maintain national identity that was often contested and was on the wane at the time. The article attempts to answer such an important question for Chmielowski himself as to why it was necessary to find among the generation of post-insurgency Poles a figure that would resemble Ignacy Kraszewski, a man-institution, and thus provide an exemplary model, necessary and much needed model figure in upholding and maintaining national consciousness and in preserving continuity. It is the culture and literature of the latter half of the nineteenth century that Chmielowski investigates in search of poetry and the poet as an icon of the nineteenth centuryness and modernity in the post-January insurgency non-poetical times. Asnyk can be seen, in Chmielowski’s terms, as an icon of the modern poet, a keystone figure who straddled the line between what can be consolidated and what was left to be saved in order to preserve the paradigm of Romantic poeticalness and the necessity for adjusting to new cultural circumstances and contemporary expectations on the part of receivers.Item „Najtrudniej opisywać to co najważniejsze”. O "Płynie Lugola" Bohdana Zadury(2012) Opacka-Walasek, DanutaThe starting point for the interpretation of the poem "Płyn Lugola", [Lugol’s solution] written by B. Zadura, is the rift between the classical form of the sonnet and the title that prompts the interventionist character of the poem and that indicates journalistic involvement in and the implications of the events in Chernobyl. This in turn leads to identification of further structural tensions and dissonances (in the verse course, at the level of imaging and in shaping the mood of the poem). The descriptive category for the essence of the composition and underlined overtones of the work is the sublime, in particular as it is viewed by modern aesthetics (proposed by Lyotard, Derrida, but also Burke). What surfaces is the microscale of imaging clashed with the macroscale phenomena formalized in lyrical situation, violation of the substance of the world, stability encroached by liquidity. A particularly validated layer of the work is the sound structure of the poem: in the finely and precisely controlled instrumental line, almost equivalent to the anagram, connotes the word “Chernobyl”, though the word is not expressed explicitly in the text. The interpretation intends to prove that the stake here is the articulation of sublimity charged and permeated with a metapoetic reflection – and that “the most important is, at the same time, the most difficult to describe”.Item Z „pomiędzy” Heaneya – Jarniewicz(2012) Okulska, InezThe subject for the critical and literary comments in the present article is, in the first instance, the collection of essays devoted to the literary output of the Irish Nobel prize-winner Seamus Heaney written by Jerzy Jarniewicz and entitled “Wiersze pod dotyk”. Though this is the chief reason, but not the only one, as this seemingly innocent monograph book turns out to be a gem in itself with regard to the poetical artistry of the Polish author of the essays. And so, the reader finds the following: poetical language of description, poetical sensitivity in reading and a particular poetical manifesto that has a programme-character for Jarniewicz-poet. And all this is revealed form the eponymous “in between”, from between the verses, reading material, fascination and connotations of the author.Item Jak objąć poetów nakazem pracy. Eliza Orzeszkowa i Piotr Chmielowski wobec "Działu pieśni" Leonarda Sowińskiego(2012) Okulicz-Kozaryn, RadosławCondemning the hostile attitude of modern poets towards both the manifestations and the very idea of civilizational progress, Eliza Orzeszkowa, in her extensive article "Listy o literaturze. Wiek XIX i tegocześni poeci" written in 1873, and then Piotr Chmielowski in his "Zarys literatury polskiej ostatnich lat szesnastu", illustrated their arguments with a number of poems, including the sonnet "Dział pieśni" by Leohnard Sowiński. R. Okulicz-Kozaryn starts with reminding his readers that the controversies over the right of poets to put themselves over society, formulate opinions and judgments of civilization and their attempts to promote such values as scientism or utilitarianism, had had a long tradition at the time. By embarking on it, however, Orzeszkowa and Chmielowski appealed to practices of a particular kind, namely to disregard completely the message of a poem and to focus on exploiting it only to support their own arguments. The author of the article analyses the mechanism behind this manipulation and claims that Orzeszkowa, followed by Chmielowski, had even removed some words from the poem that could have been interpreted by the then reader as a sign of affiliation to the national community, and as an expression of democratic and solidaristic beliefs. They also ignored the fact that Sowiński had sacrificed part of his life for these values being sentenced to exile and the following social degradation for his participation in the freedom movement at the turn of the 1850s and 1860s. In the heat of the ideological struggle, Orzeszkowa and Chmielowski did not argue for their own belief and did not even enter into polemics with the most important message in the poem. The truth is that L. Sowiński did not question the civilizational march forward of the mankind but rather showed that, contrary to what the positivists claimed, utilitarianism was just an appetite for enjoying the achievements of progress and maximizing pleasure and was not its diving force, being more like a parasitic residue and a baggage.Item Tomografia wiersza(2012) Michałowski, PiotrThe present interpretation is an attempt to apply the close reading method to Bohdan Zadura’s poem „Zbuntowane komórki” [Rebellious cells]. The analysis reveals mysterious relations between the motifs of „snowless winter”, memory and a mole in the face of a close person that has been removed by plastic surgery. A juxtaposition of a landscape with a fragment of a portrait evokes particular contexts: that of beauty and aesthetics, healthiness and the unnerving medical examination that may suggest malignant tumor and, first of all, violated identity. The oncological theme intertwines with the ontological problem. In addition, the relations between the presented world in the poem and the texts turn out to be parallel: the „salubrious” classical form of the sonnet, available in the process of interpretation, is conducive to the subjugation of the cancer worry.Item Wartościowanie poezji w "Zarysie literatury polskiej z ostatnich lat szesnastu" Piotra Chmielowskiego. Kilka punktów widzenia(2012) Kowalczuk, UrszulaThe article analyses the mode of establishing and recording the process of poetry valuation in "Zarys literatury polskiej z ostatnich lat szesnastu" [An outline of the literature of the last sixteen years] written by Piotr Chmielowski, as well as the textual strategies of the author that modeled the transformations in the discourse of the author. It is proved in the article that in the Chmielowski’s disquisitions the problem of evaluation is just as important as the evaluation as a problem. The evaluation of poetry conducted by the critic was an element of self-identification of the generation of ”young poets” that he himself represented, as well as a proof for their longing for grand poetry, discomfort resulting from lack of authority figures and difficulties in expressing one’s own or/and national suffering. The use of the so-called ”argument of poetry” has been recognized here as a distinctive feature of Chmielowski’s idiolect that serves to dynamize his critical writings.Item Poeta źle wychowany. Opinia Piotra Chmielowskiego o Mironie i jej konsekwencje(2012) Karpow, MartaPiotr Chmielowski, one of the most important literary critics and historians of the literature of the Positivist period, had an enormous role in shaping the opinion on the literary output of Aleksander Michaux (pen-name Miron). The critic contributed much to strengthen the negative image of the poet by discrediting his works using unfounded and groundless accusations of their non-original character, or by a selective choice of citations aimed to ridicule the author, among others. The accusations forwarded by Chmielowski, mainly those referring to the alleged anachronism or even Miron’s dislike of progress, were simply repetitions of the arguments presented earlier in Eliza Orzeszkowa’s "Listy o literaturze". The attitude of Chmielowski towards Michaux reflected well the universal resentment of Positivist critics towards contemporary poets and testified to a particular understanding of the goals of lyric poetry and the principles governing it. Any literary output that did not fulfill the requirements of utilitarianism was supposed to be shunned and removed beyond the mainstream of the Polish literature of the time. The conviction on low artistic merit of the poetic output of the Positivist period, formed as early as the latter half of the nineteenth century, has lingered among a sizeable number of modern readers of literature.Item intensywność Wata(2012) Kandziora, JerzyThe article discusses a collection of literary essays "Elementy do portretu. Szkice o twórczości Aleksandra Wata" published and edited by Poznańbased specialists in Polish literature and dedicated to Professor Ewa Wiegandt. The starting point for the discussion is the observation that the authors of the essays had to grapple with the elusiveness and multidimensional character of the output of A. Wat, with the entanglement of the text of his works with the text of his biography, and finally with the multitude of its cultural contexts. The reviewer distinguishes four research currents in the collection of essays, each being a different answer to these particular traits of Wat’s writing. Historical and literary studies in the book show the author in his relations and as a non-categorizable author, and challenge the Futurist character of his juvenile writings by juxtaposing them with earlier Symbolism and later Catastrophism. The interpretative study current tries to find ways to define Wat through reading his individual works. Here, the overriding opposition between ”closeness” and ”openness”, so pivotal in the poet’s works, becomes apparent. The current of thematology that present Wat’s literary topoi in relation to his biography is well represented in the volume. Finally, the studies that cross the strictly literary horizon try to capture the multi-tier structures of Wat’s works, reinterpreting them from the sociological, historical or axiological perspectives. The final conclusion of the review is the acknowledgement of the richness offered by the book that corresponds well to the intensity of works and the biography of the author.Item „Polski” Rilke(2012) Kałążny, JerzyThe publication of Katarzyna Kuczyńska-Koschany’s book "Rycerz i Śmierć. O Elegiach duinejskich Rainera Marii Rilkego" fills the large gap in Polish research on Rilke as it is the first monographic study of the "Duino elegies". The author of the book interprets individual elegies and discusses their mutual relationships within the whole of the cycle in a very personal way, appealing to her own reading and poetical sensibility. Simultaneously, the author supports her analysis with the theoretical foundations created by acclaimed and reputed German researchers of Rilke’s literary output such as Käte Hamburger, Beda Allemann, Manfred Engel and Jacob Steiner, among others. In her considerations, the author also refers to Polish translation of the elegies, notably those made by Mieczysław Jastrun and Adam Pomorski, also providing their critical interpretation.Item „Geniusz jutra na atomy rozbity”. O epokowych diagnozach Piotra Chmielowskiego i Antoniego Langego(2012) Jauksz, MarcinThe article presents an unofficial discussion that took place between one of the most prominent Polish critics of the late 19th century and Antoni Lange, a raising poet of the 90s, whose work had gained little attention from the older colleague. Mentioned briefly in Chmielowski’s "Współczesni poeci polscy" in 1895, Lange responded to some of the critic’s conceptions concerning the contemporary poetry and presented his own (contradictory) analysis in an article published shortly afterwards. Chmielowski did not respond to that directly, however, his review of Lange’s volume of poetry published at the time and the will to defend his claims using the adversary’s poetry as a pretext shows that the young poet had succeeded in provoking the respected critic to take defensive position. The two writers, discussing an ongoing ‘crisis’ of poetry, present their own perspectives on the roots of the situation. Chmielowski’s claims from the beginning of the 20th century prove that the dispute, unofficial as it was, was won by Antoni Lange.Item Ogień życia. Wiersz Adama Zagajewskiego "O mojej matce"(2012) Czabanowska-Wróbel, AnnaAny interpretation of one of the most personal poems written by Adam Zagajewski provides a good opportunity to reassess in the new light the elegiac, deeply personal body of his poetry, as well as the role of recollections and memory in the poet’s poetical and essayist writing. The work is interpreted not only within the parental context of the literary output of the author of the essay Lekka przesada [A slight exaggeration] (2011), but also against the background of the important theme in Polish poetry, including modern poetry, i.e. the motif of the mother. The title for the present sketch has been drawn from the essay The Fire of Life, the apology of poetry authored by Richard Rorty, and stresses its unique role in expressing human experience, indicated by the American philosopher.